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It’s the end of the fall semester, so, as usual, I’ve been busy with final assessments, grading, paperwork, meetings and other duties. But soon, however, I’ll be vacationing in Laos (mainly) to visit with my friend Nai and his family. Korea’s weather is starting to turn wintry cold, so spending some time in a more tropical clime is very appealing, of course.
I’m not going for a long time–just a bit more than a few weeks. My Air China flight to Bangkok leaves next Monday around noon, and I’ll be back in Yeosu on January 5th. I got a pretty good price on the flight about a month and a half ago, but that price came with some long layover times in Beijing, five or so hours going and more than seven hours coming back. Going to Bangkok will be the worst leg of the trip. I’ll be leaving Yeosu on the 11 p.m. bus to Incheon Airport, which arrives around 4:30 in the morning. Since my flight doesn’t take off until around noon, I’ll have a long wait. Incheon, however, is one of the top rated airports in the world, so I don’t mind hanging around there for that amount of time. Then, I go to Beijing and have a wait of about 5 hours until I go to Bangkok. I don’t arrive in the “City of Angels” until around midnight. From there, I’ll take a taxi to my hotel, probably not getting to sleep until 2 a.m. A long day, indeed.
After goofing around in Bangkok for an all-too-short while, I’ll take the overnight train to Nongkhai on the evening of the 21st, arriving there the next day around 8:30 in the morning. I’ll spend a few days in Nongkhai with Nai, then we’ll cross the Friendship Bridge into Laos, and . . . hmmm, not really sure. We might head up to Vang Vieng or Luang Prabang, or we might decide to stay at his family residence for Christmas and New Year. Christmas in a Buddhist, Communist country–an interesting place to spend the holidays, to say the least.
Finally, after whatever adventures and strange situations that occur in Laos, I’ll take the train back to Bangkok and take a flight back to Incheon on the 4th of January, including another long layover in Beijing. Such is the cost of cheap airline tickets.
Hopefully, I’ll be able to keep you posted about the trip, so stay tuned for more later.
The Vientiane Dragon Boat Racing Festival is one of the events marking the end of the Buddhist Lent period, which is called Ork Punsa in Laos and Thailand (read about it at the Buddhism Inter blog, at this Laos travel blog, or at Lao Voices). The race was held this past Thursday, Oct. 13th, along the Mekong River in the capital. Check out this video posted on You Tube to see some of the racing and some of the other goings-on along the riverbank. Lao Voices also has a short article on the history of the boats.
Nai told me that his entire village was celebrating because many of the young men on the winning team, including one of his brothers, are from his neck of the woods. I’ve watched these guys practice and race before, and they are an amazing sight to watch. The You Tube video above will give you some sense of the strength and team work of the top crews. Wish I’d been there. Someday, perhaps.
I stayed a few short days in both Nong Khai, Thailand, and Vientiane, Laos. I mainly hung out along the Mekong River, and both cities have built up their respective riverbanks.
Nong Khai hasn’t changed all that much in the year since I’d last been there. It’s a pleasant walk along the river, where you can duck into one of the small shelters, out of the hot sun, and take a nap if you’d like.
There are also any number of small, open-air restaurants. Go in, sit by a fan and grab a snack or a meal. Here, Nai and I prepare to chow down. I’m the fella without glasses. Oh, sorry about that. You’ll just have to guess which one of the handsome guys is yours truly.
I forget what Nai ordered, but I got shrimp pad thai (first photo below) and spring rolls. Yummmmm.
You can also eat dinner ON the river by taking the dinner cruise boat, located at the end of the river walkway. It’s not too expensive and it’s worth it, in my opinion. Nong Khai is very colorful from the middle of the Mekong. One of my favorite sights is the Big Buddha that sits on top of one of the temples, contemplating the river and gazing into Laos.
This particular evening, the sun was close to setting and the golden light it cast really bought out the colors along the river bank.
Let’s take a look into Laos, shall we?
Not too much to see except temples and lots of vegetation. But, then again, it’s not Vientiane. You have to go about 20 kilometers upstream, as the river flows, to get to the capital city. In the past, the river was lined with small restaurants, merely chairs and grills set up to serve diners, but it was a nice spot to watch the sun go down over Thailand. Here’s a shot of one of our favorite spots from days gone by (actually, from December, 2009).
Here’s another one from the same time from the fourth floor location of the Bor Pen Nyang bar. However, this one shows some of the dramatic changes that would be made to the riverside. The image below it gives a broader look at the construction that was still ongoing in June of 2010.
The result of all that work is a very pleasant riverside park, one that Laotians can be very proud of. Gone from that area are all the old dining areas (they’ve moved farther down the river), but there’s a very nice walkway, play areas for the kids and lots of greenery. Here’s another view from almost exactly the same location from the Bor Pen Nyang. The park stretches nearly to the large, white Don Chan Palace hotel in the background, and I believe work is still being done on the section near there.
The two shots below were taken around 6 p.m. on a Saturday, so the place was fairly crowded with families, couples, singles and even a few monks, all out enjoying a stroll or riding their bicycles in the cooling evening breeze.
So, yeah, it’s a nice park and a welcome addition to Vientiane. I kinda miss the small eateries, but they can still be found if you look for them. Sitting on the river, sipping an ice-cold Beer Lao or another beverage of your choice and watching the sun go down over the Mekong is also still possible and a memorable experience.
That’s it for now. I’ll get some more photos up later of Bangkok and Phuket, so stay tuned.
After spending a few uneventful days in Nongkhai, Thailand and in Laos, I’m back in Bangkok with Nai in tow. Tomorrow we’re off to Patong Beach on Phuket Island to spend a week lazing away on the white sand under the palm trees. OK, Patong isn’t quite that idyllic, but it’s nice enough (and nasty, too, but in a nice way  )
Nongkhai is much as it was a year ago, but Vientiane has made a striking change along the Mekong. A new riverfront park was under construction while I was there last year. It’s been finished and it’s a beautiful addition to the city in an area that used to be dusty and dilapidated. We were there on Saturday and hundreds of Laotians and foreigners were out taking late afternoon strolls, riding bicycles or just sitting and enjoying the view. I’ve got photos of the park and, of course, other shots taken elsewhere; however, I don’t have a conversion program to process them, but I’ll post plenty of pix and a full trip report when I get back to Korea. More later.
Uhmmm, I meant to say that Korean “sex workers” protest. Sorry for the “offensive” title of this post.
I don’t know how widespread this story is, but I found it interesting that it was reported by the Vientiane Times of Laos. Here’s a screen capture I made of the report; it’s a bit blurry, so click on it for a larger, clearer version.
Is this a big deal in Laos? Are many Laotians gasping and oohing and aahing over this story? I don’t know, but I do know that Korean NGO’s and the Korean government have a sizeable presence in Laos.
Anyway, how many times have you heard of “ladies of the night” protesting against police crackdowns on their “right to live?” (Which I assume means a right to make a living.) I wonder how their clients feel. Personally, I wish the ladies luck.
P.S. To address the concerns of those of you who are smirking and grinning knowingly, I want to honestly state that I absolutely do NOT make use of the services provided by these ladies. I am, however, a champion of the downtrodden, exploited workers of the world. 
I just finished phoning my friend Nai in Laos and he breathlessly reported that Vientiane experienced an earthquake last night. I had trouble understanding him at first, but he told me, with his sometimes-bad pronunciation and his humorous, but creative, fracturing of English, that:
Last night we have same-same NieuwZhelind (it took a few repetitions for me to understand he was talking about the recent earthquake in New Zealand) and my house dancing (shaking) too much.
So, I searched the Internet, and, sure enough, there was a 4.6 magnitude ‘quake in the region last night. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but he said, in so many words, that some buildings had been damaged in the capital.
Strange and unusual, I thought, but a more powerful, 6.1 temblor struck in May of 2007 that rattled windows as far south as Bangkok, and again, fortunately, no deaths were reported. I’ve never thought of Laos as an earthquake-prone area, but I guess it happens every so often.
This weekend, the capital city of Laos is marking its 450th year since its founding in 1560, when the capital was moved from Luang Prabang out of fear of Burmese invaders. There have been lots of celebrations, and when I phoned Nai on Friday night, it sounded like the party had moved to his house. He told me that a lot of the neighbors were whooping it up, and I think he had his somewhat loud TV tuned in to the goings on at the National Stadium. So, Happy Birthday, Vientiane!
After an uneventful journey on the overnight train to Nong Khai, I met up with Nai and we decided to stay in the small border city for a few days before going to Laos. At the moment, I’m in Vientiane, and I still haven’t decided whether to venture up to Vang Vieng or to go back to Bangkok tomorrow and then to either Phuket or Hua Hin to take in a few days at the beach.
Nong Khai hasn’t changed all that much, unlike Bangkok, which has dozens of new buildings going up and old ones being torn down; the skyline seems to be in a constant flux, undecided as to what face it wants to show. Everything is open again, at least those places not destroyed by arson in the recent protests. There are very few signs of the trouble, though a cleaning man pointed out a couple of bullet holes in the metal railing of one of the skywalks near Central World, courtesy of the Thai army, he told me.
Vientiane is also seeing a lot of activity, with new construction going on in the city itself and along the banks of the Mekong, where a new waterfront park is slowly taking shape. It’s been very dry and hot here, though we’re getting a bit of rain this morning. I’m not sure where my next post will be from, but I’ll certainly have more later.
My friend Nai said that “we have rain a lot last night,” so, hopefully, the drought over there will be ending soon, with the monsoon season approaching. I check the Vientiane weather report every day at Weather Underground, and I can’t begin to tell you how many days the temperature has been over 95 degrees F. the last month or two, with no rain. Recently, Nai said that there have been days when there’s not been enough water to take showers (they buy all their drinking water in bulk), and the crops are hurting. The Weather Underground site also reports that March was the hottest or 2nd hottest month on record globally (depending on which agency–NOAA or NASA–reported it). To top it all off, Nai’s mother has been ill for about 3 weeks now, so the recent Songkran Festival (Thai and Lao New Year Celebration) was dampened quite a bit, due to the weather and the sickness. If you’re interested, there’s a very cute animated music video on Youtube about Songkran. Check it out here; I’m sure you’ll enjoy it!
As long as I’m on a Laos kick tonight, here’s an article about the French influence that’s still present in the former colony. Among other things, the author writes about the delicious baguettes, croissants and muffins, to which I’ll attest. It’s quite odd, but somehow satisfying, to see and smell the culinary relics of the French colonial era in this Communist relic.
Thankfully, I have the next week off, our usual mid-semester break. I’ll try to get out and hunt down some interesting photo opportunites–I have a few in mind, including some night shots and photos of the western coastline of Yeosu. Unfortunately, the weather service is predicting rain through next Thursday and we’ve had a bit today. More later.
Here are a few more photos of my recent trip to Laos. These are shots taken of a couple of wats–Buddhist temples. I did an early morning walkaround one day while we stayed in Vientiane. Nai was still asleep, and I forgot to ask him later the name of the wat pictured below. I think it’s Wat Sithan Neua. It’s a few blocks up from Fa Ngum Road, downstream of the Inter City Hotel. Anyway, it was a beautiful, clear morning, quite pleasant for just strolling aimlessly. Here’s a shot from outside the temple grounds.
Here’s some detail of the wall of the main entrance. I’m fascinated by the murals in Buddhist temples, both here in Korea and in Laos and Thailand. This one appears to show some highlights from the Buddha’s life.
This is one of the entrances into the temple grounds.
Later that same day, we went to Wat Si Muang to ask for blessings from one of the monks. On the temple grounds are a few vendors who sell incense, candles, flowers and wooden cages of small birds (sparrows?) which will be released later. One of the vendors sells long lengths of candles that are used to measure the length from your outstretched arm to your chest and the length around your head. The thin, flexible candles are folded at these lengths. Later, when the monk gives the blessing, he burns these candles. Nai, I and another unknown Lao fellow were blessed by a young monk. As we sat on the floor in front of him, the monk took a spool of string and wrapped it around the three of us and chanted for about five minutes, asking for Buddha’s blessing. Afterwards, Nai burned the incense and laid the flowers at an outdoor altar, where he also released the birds, about 6 of them in all. I’m sure they were happy to get out of the cramped cage and regain their freedom. I wonder how many of them are caught again. All in all, it’s a very peaceful, spiritual ceremony.
Inside the main temple, in an alcove beyond where we received the monk’s blessing, there is this jade (emerald?) buddha. It’s another area where people pray and offer incense and flowers. There were no worshippers in here at the time, so I took the opportunity to snap this shot.
That’ll do it for my Laos photos. The cold weather in this neck of the woods is supposed to lessen next week, so hopefully I’ll get off my lazy, but warm, duff and get some shots of Yeosu. More later.
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